Nigeria bus station bombing kills dozens

A roadside bomb ripped apart the bus station near a busy junction some 30 kilometers west of the town of Mubi on Thursday, according to witnesses and security forces. At least 35 people were reported to have died in the attack.

Five of those killed in the attack, near an army checkpoint, were said to have been soldiers. Several buses were left ablaze following the explosion.

The bomb is believed to have exploded as a team of soldiers and hunters were conducting a routine patrol of the area.

Mubi lies close to the Cameroon border and was overrun last month by Boko Haram militants seeking to create a separate Islamic state to secede from religiously mixed Nigeria.

Legacy of slaughter

While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, initial suspicion fell on the militant group.

In the past week alone, two female suicide bombers killed more than 45 in the Borno state capital Maiduguri, while nearly 50 fish vendors died in an ambush near Niger.

Boko Haram, the name of which when loosely translated means "Western education is sinful," has killed more than 3,000 people in Nigeria's north this year alone.

When the group first launched attacks in 2009, it mainly targeted Christians. However, since mid-2013, Boko Haram has focused its attacks on government security agents as well as on civilians gathered in public places from both the Christian and Muslim faiths.

rc/jm (Reuters, dpa)